Through other eyes
by PenPusher4
Summary: Movie based - Who knew a visit to the Rainy Basin could change Cyrus Crabbs life forever ? What is it about this girl and her partner dinosaur..who happens to be a T-Rex ! - CyrusCrabbOFC..Chapter 5 !
1. Offer

Disclaimer : I don´t own Dinotopia

Note: English is only my second language, so please don´t be too hard on me, also a beta reader would be lovely :)

Chapter 1 : Offer 

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Sun was starting to go down in the land of Dinotopia.

Well for one man it was always sundown; not a positive rising, but the waiting for an eventually downfall; a change, even if it might destroy a whole world.

This man was Cyrus Crabb, sitting at the table in his shop right now, pondering if he should already close or let the illusion stay alive for a few minutes yet; that someone migth come in to buy one of his antiquieties.

_As if anyone of those damn scaleys or their "pet humans" would want to buy something, that could remind them of reality or anything else, that´s apart from their ´´perfect and harmonic way of life´´´...yuck ! _

He thought, half disgusted, half amused.

Speaking of scaleys and reality, was that really one of those postal birds outside, in front of the shop window, peering inside, just waiting to be let in ?

He hoped not, he wasn´t sure what he would do to a scaley if he met one right now.

And one of those bastard creatures wasn´t exactly worth being thrown out of town.

He blinked a few times, and took a closer look just to be sure.

Grumbling he fingered after his cane, then - with a heavy sigh - stood up and hobbled to the door.

Shooting the little dinosaur an icy glance he opened the door just to shut it right behind it, once the creature was in. He also changed the note from ´´Open´´ to ´´Closed´´, and - having a suspicious look on the street - he turned his attention towards the newcomer.

Said one began to instantly chirp his message.

"For Mr. Cyrus Crabb from Waterfall City :" He began to croak.

"Yeah, that´s me." Cyrus nodded.

"Dear Mister Crabb, I´m sure you remember a good business partner, once you hear from him again, as I must say all of our businesses were true pleasures."

He raised an eyebrow.

No addresser ? What was that supposed to mean ?

"Which is directly leading me to the reasons I send you this note.

I just happened to gain possession of something extremly valuable, especially valuable for you, considering your ´´hobbie´´.

If you should be interested - which I´m sure of you are - then meet me as soon as possible in the Rainy Basin, to make sure nobody overhears anything...

End of message !" Croaked the bird-like dinosaur finally.

"The end ya say ?...Then, under this circumstances...get ya bloody scales outta

my shop !!" He yelled at the animal, trying to hit it with his cane.

The dinosaur flew through the open door once it was offered with no intention to come back.

With a heavier sigh than before, Cyrus sat down again, the message still ringing in his ears.

_Who could have possibly sent me this message ?_

_Probably none of my smart business partners, as nobody would be so stupid as to seal a deal in the middle of the carnivores territory, no way I´m going !_

_...yet...he mentioned something about value..great value..for me..._

_...Oh damn this island and its three times damned scaleys !_

_I need to know what he has, dammit !_

With this decision ended his inner argument.

_Oh boy..I can´t believe I´m really gonna do it.._

His eye wandered to one of the many clocks in the room and with an almost yelp he leaped to his feet - or in his case : one foot and a cane- quickly packed a few things like money and provisions in his bag and stormed out of his shop to catch the last bus to Volcaneum just in time.

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Note : Review :) !!


	2. Findings

Disclaimer: I don´t own Dinotopia

Chapter 2 : Findings 

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The other passengers must have thought he was mad, since he told the driver to stop, once they had entered the Rainy Basin.

Under the head shacking looks of the other Dinotopians Cyrus climbed down the leather staircase, turned around, and strolled towards the woods without bidding the rest farewell.

_Don´t say anything you don´t mean...except it gives you an advantage.. _He told himself with a sly grin while the distance between the safe Brachiosaurus and him increased from minute to minute.

Once he was surrounded by high trees he looked around once, then hobbled on.

_Hell, I don´t even know exactly where I´m gonna meet this guy !_

Nervously he watched his surrounding whenever he heard a strange noise : the cry of an animal, rustling in the bushes, cracking of a twig...reactions meant life or death, the faster the better for you - the slower the better...for the carnivores.

He walked on for about an hour.

With a tissue he wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

Damn, he wasn´t used to walk long distances anymore. Living in the city with all those fools had made him weak.

He stopped for a short break, seating himself on a tree trunk.

His eyes wandered around while his hand otherwhile searched in the pockets of his coat after something to drink.

With an releaved expression he pulled out a silver shining bottle -obviously filled with self made alcohol - and let parts of the liquid run down his throat.

Now he felt definitely better.

He was just about to stand up again when something caught his attention.

There, something behind that ferns..what was that ?

Questioning he stood up, carefully walking over to examine the strange object.

He almost stumbled back in total horror at what he saw :

There were standing black boots. Interesting detail about them was, that their owner was _partly still in them_, to be exactly _his feet_. The rest seemed to be bitten off.

With utter disgust Cyrus looked at the blood covered remains, bones sticking out of the teared flesh.

He didn´t had to search very long for the answer after the murderer :

Around the boots were a large number of T-Rex tracks.

"Just gotta be hopin none of this stinkin bastards is here anymore.."

He said, trying to gulp down his nervousness.

Yet when he turned around he was directly starring into a T-Rex´s eyes.

His eyes going as big as saucers and his face turning unhealthy white he let out a small cry and stumbled backwards, falling on his back.

Desperately he kicked his remaining working leg, trying to get away from this monster, not able to turn his gaze away from it.

Suddenly there appeared a girl´s head over the creature´s massive one. There was a gloating grin on her oriental looking face.

"Oh sorry, I didn´t intend to scare you !"

He wanted to say a smart thing like :"Good thing then, that ya haven´t" or something else sarcastic, but he just couldn´t, his mind was totally blank.

"Do you think he´ll ever find speech again ?" She whispered to the dinosaur, half giggling, since he had been lying there and starring at them for at least two minutes.

That was, when Cyrus awoke from the trance he hadn´t even known he had been in.

"Wha- what ?"

"Oh, good !" She lauded him, like a teacher would a kid. "Now add a subject, a verb and an object and there you go with your first sentences !"

Either he was too confused to realize that she was making fun of him or he simply didn´t care.

"What is.. ?" He helplessly gestured with his head to the dinosaur in front of him, on which she was obviously sitting on. "Who the bloody hell are ya girl ?!"

"My, what manners I do have.." She said, again gloatingly, as if she was in reality referring to someone else

"My name is Jessica Albert - for short ´´Jessie´´ - and the name of my lovely T-Rex here is Seth."

"Ya..ya ´´lovely T-Rex´´ ?!" He croaked, rather unbelieving of what he´d heard.

"Oh, of course I mean the way coolest dinosaur of whole Dinotopia." She said, affectionally petting the head of this creature with giant sharp teeth.

In mid-petting she stopped, looking Cyrus directly into the eye.

"And you are ?"

"Cyrus, Cyrus Crabb...antiquieties shop owner in Waterfall City." He tried to say as proud as a man sitting in dirt was capable of.

"I see..and that explains of course perfectly why you´re wandering around the Rainy Basin all by yourself, _just waiting_ to be teared apart by a hungry T-Rex.."

She said pretty random.

"Ever heard of ´´minding ma own business´´ ?"

"Uhm...no ?" She fired back.

This girl was driving him nuts ! He had to get away from here as soon as possible !

He tried to stand up on one shaky left leg, his cane only a weak support.

Oh, how he wished right now, to have his right leg back exactly in this moment !

This way he wouldn´t have to suffer under the glances of this brat, who was probably wondering by herself how pathetic a man could become.

To his luck and for his pride´s sake she didn´t offer to help him up, she merely sat there and watched,...waited.

Once he was on his feet again - breathing heavier, but on his feet - he turned around again and started to hobble past the ferns, ignoring her, as if they had never met.

"So you´re really serious about this whole meeting in the Rainy Basin stuff ?"

She asked him, causing him to stop and facing her.

He shot her a toothy, kind of spiteful smile.

"Why should I lie to you ? Besides do I look untrustworthy ?" He asked, pointing at himself, grinning as if this all was one big joke - which it was, in the end.

The girl seemed to seriously ponder about the question, then - after seemingly coming to no conclusion - she bend down to the T-Rex and started to talk to him in a strange growl and snarl language Cyrus didn´t understand, or had even heard before.

He seemed to answer somehow in long, deep, thundering growls as their ´´conversation´´ lasted for a minute.

"To Seth you do," She finally answered, "and me, I´m not sure yet. But I´ll guess I´ll eventually find out in the next few days.."

Cyrus raised an eyebrow, looking not as amused as he had before.

"Whaddaya mean ?"

"Do you expect me to let you simply wander around this place after I met you ? Not that I really care, but I fear my conscience would kill me once I´ll find what the carnivores left of you..That´s why I think I gotta escort you back to your home." She told him rather determined.

Laughing he shook his head.

"Well, then too bad I´m not returning home - for the next days, that is."

"Then I´ll follow wherever you intend to go in the Rainy Basin ! Don´t you understand, Seth and me are the only protection you have around here ?!" She kept pushing the topic.

Cyrus rolled his eyes, yet in his thoughts he reluctantly agreed with her.

_If she´s so after saving my life, like a T-Rex ending it, ...then where´s the problem ? _

_Nothing bad about a free escort I guess..and if there should be, the old Cyrus Crabb should be still able to finish this annoying girl off, human eating scaley at her side or not..._

Flashing a false smile at her he agreed.

"Under this circumstances young lady..why not ?"

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Would love reviews and a beta reader :) !!


	3. Campsite stories

Disclaimer: Still don´t own Dinotopia

Chapter 3 : Camp site stories 

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"It´s going to be dark soon." She told them after they had been walking in silence for awhile. Well, _he_ had been walking. _She_ was still riding on her T-Rex.

"So we better find a place to rest, while we can still see.."

"I thought Carnivores were good at seeing in darkness, why don´t let we do him the work of finding a good place ?"

Apparently she ignored his sneering remark.

They walked on for a few minutes, when she suddenly told her partner with an invisible sign to stop. Cyrus also came to a halt, confused.

"What´s the matter ?"

"There are other T-Rexes in front of us. They´re on a hunting trip right now. If we would move, we might warn their prey and they would be unsuccessfull."

She told him seriously.

"Oh, I see..of course.." He didn´t really sound convinced, rather making fun of her.

None of them spoke in the next minute. Then the final cry of a herbivore echoed through the forest, together with the sound of breaking bones and flesh that was teared apart.

Grunting and smacking noises followed.

"I guess they are done..are we now ´´allowed´´to go on ?"

"Of course."

They soon found a nice place to rest. Once a huge tree had been standing there, now it lay destroyed - maybe hitten by lighting ? - on the ground, providing them with a good camping place alltogether with dry twigs for a fire.

While the girl collected some twigs, Cyrus sat down, and was soon followed by the T-Rex, who made himself comfortable, lowering his massive body, leaning against the remaining parts of the tree.

With a mixture of disgust and caution Cyrus moved a bit away from him.

_One may be able to ride on him, but one never knows if this scaley won´t satisfy his nightly appetit on the nearest human.  
So rather be safe, than sorry..._

When the girl returned with her arms full of twigs she kneeled down and tried to arrange a few of them so they would make a good fire, supporting the ends of the twigs she placed in a circle around them.

From her bag - that had till now rested on the T-Rex´s bag - she produced a fire stone.

Kneeling over the twigs once again, she hit it together with another stone in an attempt to make fire.

Barely seconds later a spark flew over to the wood and a small fire started crackling, growing bigger once she blew into the flames.

Satisfied of herself she leaned back, against her dinosaur´s big belly.

Once more she opened her bag, roaming through it.

"Want something to eat ?" She asked him.

A little startled he answered: "Why not ?"

"What was your name again ?" One hand still searching around in the bag´s inside.

"...Cyrus ?"

"Exactly."

"Ok, then there you go, Cyrus." She said, handing him over something that looked like a pale tomato.

"Whazzat ?" He asked, examining the pink clot in his hands.

"Meat, of course." She said, taking out another one and bitting into it.

Had he understood right ?

"Meat ?" He asked again, raising the ball.

"Yeah, or how do you expect me to feed Seth ? He can´t live on plants like Herbivores you know..."

"Right,...right.." Somewhat confused he eyed the meat, till now his only encounter with meat had been fish; he had hated the fish bones.

Slowly he bit into it...and was surprised at how well this unfamiliar kind of food tasted.

"It´s good ! Indeed.." He told her, only to see the amusement glistening in her eyes.

"What ?"

"Oh, nothing..I just tend to forget that everyone else on this island is a more or less forced vegetarian.." Laughing she shrugged her shoulder, bitting into the the meat ball once again.

Did he see the spark of rebellion glimming inside that girl ?

Could it be ?

_Probably just imagining it.._

"So...do you hunt down the ´´going to be meat´´ for you dino ?" He asked her after a while of eating in silence.

"Partly...most of the time I search together with him after animals we could possibly kill this day - often the older ones, who came here to die anyway or these, whose flock had become too big -..then,..well, I sit on his back and help in case he isn´t able to overpower our victim by himself."

"A wholehearted hunter, aren´t ya ?" Cyrus commented, gulping down the last piece of his meat.

"Not much to do for someone with a T-Rex as a partner, is there ?"

"How did you get it anyway ?"

"´´It´´ ? His name is Seth, remember ?" She half scolded him.

"And I´m Jessie, in case your memory is bad."

"Alright, _Jessie_...how did you get _Seth_ ?" His tone full of sarcasm.

"To be honest I found him...almost three years ago..he had barely hatched, not more than a few days old, when I stumpled over him... See, I originally was looking for fruits or something else to eat when I found all this T-Rex eggs lying around..Most were broken..

I wanted to leave again, disappointed that I weren´t goingt to have a rich meal, after all.

Then I saw his eyes blinking through the bushes.

I´m not sure, either he was afraid or he tried to play hunter on me..

I already asked Seth about this, but as it is with most old memories, he can´t remember..now can´t you, you big baby ?" She playfully asked her partner, crawling the scales of his throat.

"Anyway, that´s when this idea hit me..guess he and I had no other perspectives anyway..with no one else to care for him..

And from this time on we´re partners, the Rainy Basin our territory together with the other carnivores..." When she had ended her little speech she took Seth´s head into her arms so that it rested on her lap. Seth didn´t seem to mind this opportunity to get crawled.

While her fingers wandered between his forehead and his eyes Jessie looked up again.

"Any questions ?" She asked Cyrus.

"Uhm, yeah !" He answered a little taken aback, this rather rare view had kept his mind absent.

"Why did ya name him ´´Seth´´ ?"

"Well for one I still partly believe in the old gods-"

"Sorry ?"

"Oh, sorry, I again forgot." She laughed, slapping her forehead.

God, it make her look so young and different from the one that had told him about hunting.

"When I´m referring to ´´the old gods´´ I mean the Egyptian gods, like Ra, Bastet, Anubis...ever heard of them ?"

He nodded. Once he had read a book about it and only shaken his head.

"Right, and since I´m half-egyptian myself I can´t help but think of and somehow believe in them.."

"Seth, by the way, is a very old, powerful god. It depends on which story you believe, but he´s told to both god of destruction..and yet change..also in a positive way."

"I see..makes kind of sense for a T-Rex.."

She laughed, her clear voice echoing through the night.

"Now doesn´t it..finally someone who agrees except Seth himself !"

He couldn´t help but fell into a short laugh to - if with or over her, he wasn´t sure.

Later, he asked :

"And ya did this all on ya own ? What about ya parents, why don´t they lend a helpin hand ?"

She suddenly became silent, pushed Seth out of her lap and prepared to lie down.

"It´s better if we rest now, I guess...Good night, Cyrus."

"G´night.." But not without raising a curious eyebrow.

But on the same time he couldn´t really complain, this way he was able to look this strange pair over without having it to be considered ´´starring´´.

His eyes wandered to Jessie´s face, which had a strange shade of exotic in it.

She must be tellin the truth about being half-egyptian.. He mused.

Her skin had a far darker tone than he was used to, nontheless not as dark as the skin of the true black ones, former africans.

Everything - except her eyes - was smaller than in an european face, more delicate, like it couldn´t stand a life outside, yet it did, every day.

Her eyes were closed, nontheless he knew that they were of a dark blue color - a contrast to his light blue almost grey ones - as he had studied them before.

His view wandered higher to her deep dark eyebrows, strong archs that showed her strong mind he had got to know by now.

Even higher he looked at her hair, which had the same black color as her brows, falling loosly and at shoulder length around her face.

Turning to Seth the first thing Cyrus noticed was the moody dark green tone of his skin, alltogether with yellowish clawed like stripes along his back.

Then of course the huge head with all this sharp teeth.

When his eyes trailed off to the dinosaur´s short and almost useless arms, he could have laughed and kind of felt sorry for this oh so feared reaper..

_..Another who´s partly invalid due to destiny.. _

Shaking his head one more time, he lowered himself too, then - once his head touched the warm ground - he closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him.

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Reviews and beta reader would be welcome :)!!


	4. On the tramp

Disclaimer: Still don´t own Dinotopia, dammit !

Kapitel 4 : On the tramp 

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He was awakened by someone shaking his shoulder.

Grumbling, Cyrus turned on his other side, away from this unwanted source of awareness.

Warm air blew in an annoying way against his face.

Angry he opened his eyes, just to close them a second later.

Then he opened one eye.

The T-Rex was still there, the warm air coming out of his mouth smelling of meat and blood.

With a somewhat curious look the dinosaur examined him, then - after coming to the conclusion that the human wasn´t awake enough yet - he prodded Cyrus with his nose.

Immediately Cyrus was on his feet - or would have been, hadn´t it been for his stiff leg.

In utter confusion he fingered for his cane, so that Seth wouldn´t get the idea that something more drastic was necessary.

When he finally found the damn piece of wood, he stood upright and eyes Seth as if saying "Hah, faster than you."

He heard muffled laughter form his right. Turning his head he saw Jessie sitting next to an already inflamed fire, grilling a clot, that looked like the ones they had just eaten the day before.

"I see someone finally is awake." She grinned at him.

"Good work, Seth.."She told her partner, as he got nearer to look what was it, that smelled so promising.

Cyrus hobbled nearer and sat down next to them.

He instantly received a branch with grilled meat at its end from Jessie.

"Breakfast´s ready." She told him in a cheery tone, he wasn´t used, since he wasn´t really a morning´s person.

When he bit into it this time, he was again surprised.

"Damn, tastes even better than before.."

"That´s because this one´s grilled and the other was smoked." She told him.

"Hmm.." He said, not really caring as long as it tasted.

While he was nibbling on his breakfast, Cyrus´ eyes wandered to the carnivore behind them.

"What about him ? Or is the new plan to have me as the victim this day ?"

It was only meant to be a half joke.

"Oh, Seth has already eaten. You see, quite lots of energy is necessary to wake up someone with a tight sleep like you. There could be Brachs stampeding over your head and still you would continue to sleep !"

She laughed about her own joke.

"Funny, really...very funny.." Flashing a false smile again.

When they were finally done, Jessie extinguished the fire and climbed on Seth´s back.

"Ready everyone ?"

Cyrus not that much motivated "Yeah" was understandable drowned by Seth´s thundering roar.

_What a way to start the day.. _He mused.

Around noon they stopped at a wellspring to fill up their bottles.

Well, _Jessie_ filled up all her bottles, Cyrus only filled one out of two.

Nothing in the world could make him mix his precious alcohol with mere water.

Seth let his big tongue flash out of his mouth and drank in loud slurps.

All the while Cyrus eyed their surroundings with a hint of nervousness, not trusting one cracking of a twig.

"What are you looking for ? Forgot something in the trees ?" She grinned.

"Ya sure we won´t be attacked by the big scaleys ?"

"Absolutely. We live here since -what ?...About three years ?"

A grunt from the wellspring confirmed her.

"Yes, about three years, and in that time we hadn´t been so much as seen them..well, ok we talked to them on a few occasions, but apart from that we rarely see them.

We stick to our way and they to theirs."

"Which means what ?"

"Like we don´t steal each others prey, or like yesterday, don´t let their hunt fail..of course it´s also vice versa..."

"But if-"

"If it won´t work ? But it always had, why should that change..and for those who don´t want to simply believe and see what would happen in the worst case..to them I´ll tell the tale of the lone dinosaur.."

She told him, hiding a grin.

"Got me listening, go on."

"Once upon a time there was this T-Rex named Cyrus.."

Her grin grew wider.

"This special dinosaur kept wondering over everything and everyone he met in the forest.

Some say, he was afraid of meat the way he looked at it...

One day his herd told him to go away, since he kept asking lots of questions day per day...so the poor dinosaur wandered off, alone and all by himself.

Soon the Cyrus-Rex became hungry, and if it was destiny, he stumbled upon a younger T-Rex with a rather tasty looking human on his back..."

She had a hard time, trying to surpress a laugh.

"Want to now, how the story ends ?"

"Yeah..absolutely.." Was there something this girl wasn´t making fun of ?

"As he was just about to eat them," She continued; "the younger one stopped him, reminding him of the pact of the Carnivores..."

"What´s the ´´Pact of the Carnivores´´ ?"

"To never eat each other, except it´s really necessary."

"Lovely."

"However, the older one was getting confused and so he told him :

´´I don want to eat you, but the human on your back.´´

´´I know.´´ Answered the younger one.

´´But she´s a part of this pact, too. She became a small part of us, when I decided to make her my partner.´´.

That was when the Cyrus-Rex understood and walked away, no more wanting to harm the human...Finish !"

"I would clap if I got ma second hand free.." His tone full of sarcasm.

"Did you understand the story ?"

"Yeah, but it didn´t really make ma calm. I´m not part of that pact, I don´t have a carnivore partner, who guarantees ma, that I won´t be eaten ?"

"I do." She said, reaching out her hand for him to shake.

"I - Jessica Albert - swear that no harm shall come upon you, as long as you´re in the Rainy Basin !"

"I guess that´s a deal.." Cyrus said, shaking her hand.

When Jessie jumped on Seth again, she freezed for a second, turning around.

"Tell me, Cyrus, what are we looking for again ?"

"Wanna know the truth ?"

"Yes."

"I got no bloody clue."

"Lovely." She said, imitating his own words.

"Only thing I know is," He told her, as they were on their way again, "that it gotta be something special, valuable in some kind...like a map or someting like that.."

"A map ? What´s so special and valuable about a map ?"

"Ya wouldn´t understand...´´minding ma own business´´, remember ?"

"Totally."

"About your ´´business thing´´...-" She started a bout half an hour later.

"It´s not _ma_ ´´business thing´´.."

"But you were the one starting it !"

"Yeah, and ya continued on doin it about ya family !" He fired back, now in rage.

"Fine !" She spit at him, also enraged.

"If you want to know so badly : My parents are dead ! Dead, dead, dead !"

Upset she told Seth to walk faster, leaving Cyrus behind.

So they´re dead ? Both of them ?

Wow,..he hadn´t thought that...

..of course it explained much about her perfectly - like her thing with living in the forest -

-yet he really hadn´t expected it...

... a part of him wanted to apologize, the other - the bigger one - was simply too proud..

...so he kept walking behind them in silence.

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Would love REVIEWS and a BETA-READER :) !!


	5. Deadly Deal

Disclaimer: Do own nothing, except Jessie and Seth, they are all mine X3

Chapter 5 : Deadly deal 

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For the rest of the day they hadn´t been talking to each other, and when they got to sleep Jessie was literally ´´showing him the cold shoulder´´.

Not that it really mattered to him, what she thought about him...but Cyrus knew that it wouldn´t definitely make travelling easier.

When he awoke in the middle of the night then, he also knew that it wasn´t of gnawing guilt, eating up his insides-..but because he had to satisfy a certain need in his lower area.

He tried to get up as silent as possible, on the same time watching out for the T-Rex´s tail, which would be an easy target to fall over.

Once he got of the dangerous zone, he let out a deep breath and continued walking into the woods for a few minutes.

Then he stopped, this place looked right to ´´leave´´ something.

His left hand wandered down to his trousers, when suddenly there was a knife on his throat, the cold metall pressed upon his flesh just enough that it drew a thin bloody line. A male´s voice spoke from behind into his ear :

"Don´t move if you want to live through this...See, we noticed you and your little girlfirend wandering around in the company of a - as strange as it seems - tamed T-Rex...

...I guess you get where I´m getting at...

We - me and my men - want that dinosaur, so you better find away to bring it to us, or else...did I make myself clear ?"

The man asked, putting more pressure on the knife, more blood poured out; not enough to actually note it from the distance the next morning, yet enough to be in pain.

"Yeah, absolutely.." Cyrus croaked weakly.

"Very good...so we have a deal : We expect you at the latest by tomorrow morning : From here you go about two hours in eastern direction, then you come to a place where there are lots of rocks, that´s where you got to stop, clear ?

Oh, and you better have the T-Rex with you then.."

With that he released Cyrus.

Cyrus turned around, but he didn´t see anyone, his attacker had already merged with the surrounding darkness again.

_By all damned scaleys in hell, what did just happen ?! _He thought, frantic.

What was he supposed to do now ?

_Doin it the normal way - cheatin -won´t work this time, I´m afraid.._

_..means I gotta do what that heap of Brach dung says.._

_Which also means Jessie gotta hate ma for this, once she finds out next morning.._

_...but she surely will understand, saving our lives in trade for a scaley..now won´t she ?!_

He told himself to satisfy his conscience, allthough again a part of him knew, that Seth was´t ´´just a scaley´´ to her.

Cyrus returned to the campsite as silent as he had gone.

_Now here the hardest part just comes...Just wonderful..ma life depends on a scaley.. _

Trying his hardest not to make any noice, albeit his cane he advanced the sleeping dinosaur.

By the time he reached out his hand to try to wake him, he noticed that there was a large yellow eye watching him.

Questioning the T-Rex raised his head from the ground.

"Yeah, good..go on.." Cyrus told him, half whispering half gesturing with one hand.

Seth actually stood up and advanced him curious.

"Now that´s a good scaley.." Cyrus noted with a malicious grin.

Seth saw it and seemed to have second thoughts about it.

So he turned to return to his sleeping trough.

"Stop ! Stop it..!" The man hissed, grabbing the larger animal around the neck in his desperation.

"Come on, will ya ?!" He ordered, while he pulled him at his neck towards his desired direction. Unnecessary to say, that the human with only one leg had no chance against the T-Rex.

"We´re going to get you some meat, huh ?" Cyrus whispered, trying a different tactic.

"Wouldn´t that be nice, scaley ? You bastards love to hunt at night, now don´t ya ?"

Cyrus obviously had hit a weak spot with his talking about meat, since Seth was becoming more cooperative and let himself being led in the direction Cyrus wanted him to go; if he hadn´t known it better, Cyrus would have sworn that this dinosaur was up to something.

Cyrus - and with him Seth - went the way the man had told him and soon they advanced the meeting point.

From a distance they could already see the clearing, as the grass almost ´´shone´´, due to its color contrast to the night.

On the left side there where a pile of rocks, a whole field of them, if one wanted to call it like that.

It was from the rock field, that Cyrus saw smoke coming up.

_It´s them, obviously.._ He pondered.

Already he wanted to step out to the clearing that they could see him, when a strip of conversation flew at his ear, it was the same man that had threatened him :

"Shouldn´t be long till that limbing scum will appear..you know, like he really did believe me, that we would leave them in peace afterwards !

Speaking of ´´them´´, how comes there´s this pretty young girl beside him ?

Did he drug her or something to force her to stay near him ?

Guess there´s no other way, that somebody would want sticking around him !

...I wonder if he´s got anything worth robbing..probably not the way he looks.."

Cyrus boiled with anger, a feeling of shame and ripped down pride washing on the same time through him, making him shake with speechless rage.

Almost incapable to form the words he turned to Seth:

"If I were ya right now - I know strange thought - I would tear them apart limb by limb and devour them..or probably not, for sure they taste like shit..."

He clenched his fists to prevent himself from running over to them and doing as much harm as he could hopping on one leg.

He also bit his tongue, hot tears forming in his eyes.

Humilitation he hadn´t expected..

..hadn´t he gotten used to it after all these years ?

Apparently not...

...he was still as weak as he used to be..

The shield of sarcasm and treachery he had built up all the time, got a small crack.

The dinosaur at his side lowered his massive head, it looked as if he was either pondering about something or trying to express that he felt sorry.

"What the bloody ya doin ?!"

A very, very deep humming reached his ear - almost that deep, that he thought it was an imagination of his messed up mind.

"Ya...ya callin something !!"

His halb angry hissed question was soon answered by loud trudging of many tree high bodies behind him.

With at least the same terror as the unknowing gang at the fire, Cyrus watched how a whole pack of T-Rexes was breaking through the tree tops and going for the humans.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cyrus noticed Seth´s eyes on him.

"Ya did that, didn´t ya ?..And for sure ya expectin some kind of praise..?

Hmpf..alright, but forget it right away again : Well done."

He almost saw a satisfied grin flashing up in the non existing features of the dinosaur.

Cyrus spit on the ground - and so indirectly on the gang.

Watching them suffer and being eaten alive, with their guts flying around - as gross as the view of it was - felt extraordionaly good.

With a feeling of superiority and satisfaction, Cyrus faced this eerie place - where now and then a dying rattle was still audible - about and went back to the campsite with Seth, hoping imploringly, that Jessie hadn´t awakened for whatever reason and noticed their missing.

* * *

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